Kentucky Quitclaim Deed (Married Couple as Grantors)

A married couple's two signatures on one Kentucky quitclaim deed carry more than the couple's record title. Under KRS 392.020, each spouse holds a statutory claim, still called dower or curtesy, in real estate the other spouse owns in fee during the marriage, and that claim does not depend on whose name appears in the vesting deed. This fillable quitclaim deed names both spouses as grantors, so a single instrument passes whatever interest each of them holds and releases the surviving spouse interest that would otherwise follow the property into the grantee's hands.

Why both spouses sign as grantors

Kentucky kept dower and curtesy when most states abolished them. KRS 392.020, as amended by 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 134 effective July 15, 2026, gives a surviving spouse the intestate share in real estate the deceased spouse owned at death and a life estate in one third of real estate the deceased spouse owned in fee at any point during the marriage but not at death, unless the right was barred, forfeited, or relinquished. The Kentucky Supreme Court has treated the interest as vesting at marriage and acquisition, and Kentucky recording practice offers no general freestanding relinquishment: the release travels inside a deed or a will. Putting both spouses on the granting side of the conveyance itself is how the release and the transfer arrive at the courthouse in one recorded instrument, and the operative section of this deed spells the release out, reaching every right, title, and interest of each spouse, including any interest of a surviving spouse under KRS 392.020.

One deed, two marital ownership patterns

The deed recites exactly two grantors, states that they are married to each other, and names one grantee. That configuration serves the couple whose vesting deed names both spouses, in whatever co-ownership form, and it equally serves the household where one spouse took title alone and the other holds only the statutory marital interest: each grantor conveys and releases everything that grantor holds, so record title and the KRS 392.020 claim leave together. A husband and wife deeding a rental house to a buyer, spouses moving jointly held land to an adult child, and a titled spouse conveying while the other joins to clear the marital interest present the patterns this deed recites. The form is not arranged as a sole owner's release, a conveyance by co-owners who are not married to each other, or an entity transfer, and it carries no provision for a third grantor.

A quitclaim with the Kentucky content statutes built in

The operative words remise, release, and forever quitclaim each spouse's interest as it stands at delivery, and because the deed uses neither of Kentucky's statutory warranty phrases, no title covenant arises from either grantor. Around that conveyance sit the entries Kentucky's recording statutes demand of every deed: the immediate source of title identified by book, page, office, and date under KRS 382.110; the parties' names, mailing addresses, and the in-care-of property tax bill address under KRS 382.135; the sworn consideration certificate the same statute places in the deed, signed by both spouses and the grantee; and the signed preparer endorsement of KRS 382.335. The county clerk computes the transfer tax from the certified figure under KRS 142.050 before the deed is lodged. A conveyance between the spouses themselves sits among the statutory exemptions, but a couple's deed to a third party is taxed on the stated consideration, which is one more reason the certificate the couple swears to gets its own section of the form.

Three signers, notarized on their own schedules

Both spouses sign the deed together with its consideration certificate, and the grantee signs the certificate alone, a signature that transfers nothing. Each of the three signatures is separately notarized under a certificate that joins the sworn statement with the acknowledgment the recording statutes contemplate, so the spouses and the grantee are free to sign in different counties, or different states, on different days. In the completed example, a Louisville couple acknowledges before a Jefferson County notary and their grantee finishes the certificate in Oldham County the next day.

Sometimes searched as a husband and wife quit claim deed, this download provides the fillable deed, the completed Jefferson County example with every entry made, and a guide that walks through each section, both spouses' signatures, and recording at the county clerk's office. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.